


Melt With You

by dumpsterdiva



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AKA CANON LANCE AMIRIGHT, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuban Lance (Voltron), F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, OF COURSE FLUFF B/C ITS ME, Strangers to Lovers, Summer Romance, im not really sure what to tag this as
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8350090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumpsterdiva/pseuds/dumpsterdiva
Summary: If you ask Keith what summer means to him, he’ll say shitty weather, a bag of quarters, sticky blue raspberry kisses, and not-quite-midnight sandwiches.Summer job AU at the pier feat. Keith as a shaved ice slave and Lance as an aquarium camp counselor.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Went to the beach today and it reminded me of this cute date I had with this guy who spontaneously took me to Santa Monica Pier one night. And then this was born. It might be a bit OOC because they don’t start off disliking each other or anything like that, but if you’ve read my other stuff you know my klance fics are always about sappy gay children who are so in love. They just deserve all the love and happiness in the world you know?? #morehappygays2k16
> 
> (P.S. I listened to the Bowling for Soup version of “I Melt With You” while writing this because I’m a millennial and Sky High is a masterpiece.)

A drop of sweat trickled down Keith’s neck as he pushed his cart down the path.

God, he hated summer.

More specifically, he hated his terrible luck with summer jobs. He was generally a happy person, but he had the worst customer service face. He liked to think his honesty and high morality were what made him really bad at hiding his exasperation with annoying customers, but it was probably because he was too lazy to give a shit. As a result, his former managers didn’t really make the best references for potential employers, so his jobs were only getting shittier and shittier. It had been Old Navy one year, Coldstone’s the next, and Denny’s last year, but this job really took the fucking cake. At least all his other jobs had been indoors with sweet, sweet air conditioning.

Still pushing the cart down the pier, he glared at the faded pink and yellow sign that read, “Seaside Shaved Ice,” as if it was its fault he was in this situation. He did have to thank Shiro for landing him a job so last minute, but being grateful wouldn’t stop him from complaining every step of the way.

With a huff, he parked the cart in the shadiest spot he could find, but knew it would be short-lived. Setting up his little stool to the side, he squinted at the sun, silently cursing it. It was only 8 AM, but Keith’s phone declared it was already a wonderful 92 degrees out.

Perfect.

\-------------

“But mooooom! I don’t like it!"

The mother standing in front of Keith sighed heavily while looking at her petulant son. “I told you that you wouldn’t like it but you insisted on getting coconut, so you’ll just have to deal with it.”

The boy pouted. “It sucks! I want strawberry instead,” he said sourly as he threw the shaved ice at the cart. Keith groaned inwardly.

 _Kill me now_.

With a gasp the mother roughly pulled her son away and said, “I am so sorry. I think the heat has gotten to him. He’s not usually this cranky.” With a shake of her head, she handed Keith the money and dragged her son to the parking lot.

Keith grabbed a wet towel and muttered to himself as he cleaned the sticky mess from the front of the cart. He was feeling a bit lightheaded and tried to blink away an oncoming headache. That kid wasn’t the only one the heat was getting to. The last time he checked, his phone had said it was 108 degrees out. Keith was pretty sure hell consisted of dry California heat, bratty kids, and permanently sticky hands. 

Thoroughly exhausted, Keith checked his watch. 12:27 PM. Still two more hours of this hell. He plopped down on the floor and cursed the sun, children, sugar syrup, and…

“You ok, buddy?”

Keith whipped his head around and felt his mouth fall open slightly. Standing behind him, backlit by the blazing sun, was the most gorgeous human being he’d ever laid his eyes on.

Keith inhaled a bit sharply before he croaked out a small, “Yeah.”

The guy gave Keith a crooked smile, eyes crinkling a little as he did so, and raised one of his beautifully tanned arms to help Keith up. If he hadn’t been sitting down, Keith would’ve fallen over. Even the sun wasn’t as blinding as this guy’s smile.

Keith subconsciously reached to grab the outstretched hand, but snatched his hand back when he realized what he was doing. The guy looked confused and even a bit hurt.

“Yikes, dude. I swear I’m not diseased or anything. Just trying to be helpful.”

Keith shook his head quickly and stammered, “No, no. It’s… my hands are sticky and kind of gross.” He pushed himself off the ground. “Thanks though, um…”

The guy smiled again and waggled his eyebrows. “The name’s Lance. What’s yours?”

“Keith.”

Lance laughed a little and Keith nearly had a heart attack. “What kind of name is that?” Keith stopped panicking for a moment to scowl and Lance held up his hand in apology. “Relax, _Keith_ , it suits you. And your outdated mullet.”

Keith rolled his eyes, ignoring the insults as they didn’t seem to be malicious. “Whatever you say, _Lance_. So what can I get you?”

“Blue raspberry, please.”

Keith chuckled softly. “Usually only kids order that flavor.”

Lance shrugged and said, “Hey, for good reason. I swear the blue makes it taste more delicious. Plain raspberry sounds boring by itself, but _blue_ raspberry? It’s a match made in heaven.”

Opening the cooler to get to the ice, Keith said, "I'm sure it is, but your tongue is going to be all blue after this.”

“It’ll match the décor at least.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “The décor?”

Lance scoffed. “Yeah, genius, I work at the aquarium right over there.” Lance jabbed a thumb to the left and then tapped his hat. “See?”

Keith glanced up at the hat that said “Santa Monica Pier Aquarium Camp Counselor.”

“Oh,” was all he could say. As he scooped some ice into a cup, he snuck another look at Lance and saw that Lance even had an ID hanging around his neck. Keith couldn’t believe he had been so distracted by someone’s face to the point of ignoring literally everything else. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “So, a camp counselor, huh? No wonder you have such childish tastes.”

Lance grinned. “That’s why I’m the kid’s favorite. I’m relatable.”

“Riiiiigghhhttt,” Keith said with another small chuckle as he poured the syrup into the cup. As the blue slowly bled into the ice, Keith could see a small sparkle in Lance’s eyes. There should be a limit to how cute one person could be. “That’ll be $2.25.”

Lance groaned and fished around his pockets. “Honestly, why do these places always have to charge that extra twenty-five cents. I hate looking for… Ah here we go!” Lance triumphantly pulled out a quarter out of his pocket and handed it over to Keith with two dollar bills.

Keith grabbed the money and handed over the shaved ice as quickly as possible, remembering his sticky hands. When their hands brushed together, he shuddered slightly. Shit.

As he took several napkins from the dispenser, Lance brought the shaved ice to his mouth, bit off the top, and sucked up the syrup. Keith felt his heart launch up to his throat as Lance smiled at him, mouth now stained blue.

“Aw man, I really needed this. You’re a life-saver.”

For once, Keith was grateful for the heat so his blush was easily hidden. “Do you have to eat it like a five-year-old too?”

In response, Lance merely winked and said, “I’ll catch you later, Keith.” He gave a small wave and turned towards the aquarium.

Keith sank down on the stool as he replayed the wink over and over again in his mind.

He was so screwed.

 

\-------------

 

Resting his head against the counter, Keith breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he was free. A plate slid over to him and Keith bit into his burger gratefully. He was starving. 

Shiro leaned over the counter and watched as Keith inhaled his food. “Jesus, Keith, slow down. You’re gonna choke.”

Keith side-eyed Shiro as he mumbled through his food, “Shiro, I’m not a kid anymore. I’m not gonn—“

Keith went into a coughing fit as he watched two guys walk into the diner. One of them was Lance.

Shiro poured him a glass of water and said, “See what I mean? Just look at you.”

Keith took the water gratefully and tried to regulate his breathing as Lance took notice of him and left his friend to walk over to him.

“Hey, Keith! How’s it going?”

Keith was still coughing a bit as he said, “Hi Lance. Just grabbing some lunch.”

Lance looked at him incredulously. “Lunch? It’s 3 o’clock! Do you always eat this late?”

Keith nodded. “I mean, yeah, I can’t really leave the stand at peak hours, so I just get something here when it’s all over.”

Shiro nodded. “Yeah, sorry I can’t bring anything to you, but we’re swamped all through lunch.”

“I can take it to him,” Lance offered.

Keith stared at Lance and was certain he really had gotten heatstroke. “Did you just say _you’ll_ bring my lunch?”

Lance shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world to get lunch for someone you just met a few hours ago. “Yeah, dude, of course. I wouldn’t be able to buy anything from you knowing that you’re starving. The kids have to eat lunch, so I’m on break around 12:30 usually. It’s no problem.”

Keith kept staring at Lance like he’d grown a second head, unable to say anything.

Luckily, Shiro answered for him. “Thanks, uh, Lance? Didn’t know Keith had any friends working around here or I would’ve suggested this a while ago.”

Keith turned to Shiro and started to say that this friendship didn’t even exist a few hours ago, but Lance interjected, “Don’t worry about it. All I ask is for some discounted shaved ice in return. How’s a twenty-five cent delivery fee sound to you?”

At that, Keith had to smile a little bit. Once he established there was at least some ulterior motive, he felt his heartbeat slow down. No use getting worked up over something so small. It didn’t mean anything. “Sounds good to me.”

Lance grinned wickedly at Keith. “It’s a date then.” Keith was glad Lance turned to call to his friend so he could bury his blushing face into his burger. “Hunk, stop flirting and let’s go.”

Lance’s friend, Hunk, didn’t look away from the girl he was talking to and said, “Alright, alright. Give us a minute.”

Lance smirked and said, “Hunk just started dating Shay two weeks ago, so he’s basically worshipping the ground she walks on.” Keith knew he was trying to tease his friend, but he could sense genuine warmth in Lance’s voice.

“You’re happy for him.” Lance stood up a bit straighter and seemed to assess Keith for a moment.

Finally, he shook his head and leaned in to whisper to Keith, “Yeah, I am, but don’t tell him that.”

For some reason, Keith felt his face get warm.

“Ready to go, Lance?” Hunk called.

“Yup!” Lance sprang up and sauntered over to Hunk. Glancing over his shoulder, he said, “See you tomorrow, Keith!”

Keith weakly lifted up his hand. “Yeah, see you.”

As he faced the counter again, he could see Shiro grinning from ear to ear. Oh no.

“Keeeeiiiiitttthhh, who is he?”

“He works at the aquarium.”

Shiro rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Works at the aquarium… Keith, you know what I mean.”

Keith tried to look nonchalant as he said, “I met him today. He bought some shaved ice.”

Shiro’s smile got even bigger. “You met him today? And he—“

“Yes, he’s a nice person. And he likes shaved ice. It’s not revolutionary.”

“You were blush—“

“Shiro, SHUT UP!” Keith reached over the counter to cover his cousin’s mouth, but Shiro just backed into the kitchen.

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun.”

Annoyed, Keith sat back down and ate his burger with a little less enthusiasm this time. He shook his head, trying to get Lance’s smile out of his thoughts.

 

\-------------

 

“Delivery for the cutest vendor on the pier!”

Keith’s ears heated up at the compliment. Did Lance actually think he was cute? Or was he just messing around? He couldn't read Lance's expressions at all. Mentally slapping himself, Keith took the paper bag. “Thanks. Here’s your shaved ice. That’ll be $2.”

Lance grinned. “Music to my ears. Thanks, Keith.” Lance took a bite of his shaved ice, totally ignoring the spoon Keith gave him, and slowly sucked up all the syrup again. Keith looked away, pretending to be disgusted. This was dangerous.

Sitting down on his stool, he opened the bag to find a grilled chicken sandwich and fries. He was about to start eating when he felt a weight press up against him.

“Scoot over,” Lance said as he nudged Keith with his butt. His very nice butt. Oh hell no.

“Um.”

“C’mon Keith. I’m exhausted. I haven’t been able to sit at all today,” Lance whined as he settled into the chair and leaned against Keith’s back.

Keith’s brain was short-circuiting, but he managed to say, “I can’t imagine working with kids all day. They can be such little monsters.”

Lance laughed. “Yeah, they go wild sometimes, but I have a lot of siblings so I’m used to it.”

“Really? The closest thing I’ve had to a brother is Shiro and he’s older, so I never really had to deal with kids much.”

Lance sucked on the ice again and the sound vibrated through Keith’s body. He shivered slightly, but took a bite of sandwich to hide it.

“Is Shiro the one who helped you get this job?”

Keith chewed on his sandwich before saying, “Yeah, he’s been working here for a while since his accident and the staff all around the pier love him. He snagged me this job last minute when my internship hours changed.”

“Internship?”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, I was supposed to work at my school’s lab this summer during the day, but my professor got stuck doing summer school so now we do our research at night.”

Lance turned his head a bit and Keith felt a small tingle as Lance’s cheek nearly brush up against his. “Wait, back up. What lab? What’s your major?”

“Astrophysics.” Lance choked.

“What?!” Lance mouth hung open. “So you’re telling me that you are a shaved ice vendor that moonlights as an astrophysicist?”

Keith shrugged. “Hey, the lab doesn’t pay and I got to make money somehow.”

Lance hunched forward and started cracking up. “Oh… my god… I can’t believe you are stuck making shaved ice when you could be, I don’t know, researching dark matter.” Lance burst into another fit of giggles.

Keith playfully shoved Lance’s shoulder with his. “A job’s a job. Why do you work at the aquarium anyways?”

Lance waved his hand and explained, “Oh, I’m studying marine biology, so I’m doing this as a favor to my boss, Coran. In exchange I can conduct my thesis research at the aquarium on the side.”

It was Keith’s turn to laugh as he said, “And you were making fun of me? You’re basically doing the same thing. Blue-lipped camp counselor by day, researching aquatic life by night.”

“I’ll have you know that my lips stay blue the whole day.”

Keith smiled. “Of course they do.”

Lance tilted the rest of the melted ice into his mouth and said, “Hey, I gotta go back to work, but I’ll see you around?”

As Lance stood up, Keith found himself missing the weight of Lance’s back against his. “Yeah, for sure.” At that, Lance grinned and hurried off towards the aquarium.

Keith wondered what good deed he had done to deserve hand-delivered lunch _and_ a cute delivery boy.

 

\-------------

 

This routine continued for the next two months. Lance would roll up with Keith’s lunch and Keith would give him his shaved ice. They would share the stool together and talk about meaningless things until Lance had to go back to work. Keith found out Lance and Hunk had gone to school together since kindergarten. Lance was impressed to learn that Keith drove a motorcycle and made Keith promise to take him around on it someday. Keith thought that the fact that Lance surfed was even more impressive. Not to mention hotter. Most recently, Lance had discovered that Keith’s professor was actually a 17-year-old genius named Pidge.

“What kind of name is Pidge??” Lance had said as he grumbled about everyone in Keith’s life having weird names. Keith didn’t mention that Lance’s best friend’s name was Hunk. Or that his boss’ name was Coran.

The next day, Lance came over as usual, but the bag was a bit different.

“What’s this?” Keith asked as he took the bag and handed Lance his shaved ice.

Lance shrugged. “Thought you might be getting bored with the same stuff every week so I went to a different place this time.”

Baffled, Keith examined the bag. “Lance, you really didn’t have to. Shiro has a running tab for me. How much do I owe you for this?”

Shifting his gaze down to his feet, Lance said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s on me.” He looked up and saw the look on Keith’s face so he continued, “Hey, just do this for me. I wanted you to try it. My friend opened up a new restaurant on the pier this week and she’s testing out the recipes. It’s Caribbean food. Well, Jamaican food mostly, but I taught her this one. Family recipe.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “New restaurant? Shiro’s not going to like that.”

“Actually, from what I saw, they were hitting it off. Allura’s just that kind of person. Sweeps everyone off their feet with a smile and her jerk chicken.” Lance chuckled and Keith could hear affection in his voice. His heart stung a little.

“Did she sweep you off your feet?” Keith asked before he could stop himself.

Lance tilted his head and stared at Keith with a strange look in his eyes for a second before saying, “Well, duh, but that was years ago and she’s way out of my league. Out of everyone’s league actually. We’re just friends.” He sounded sincere.

Keith felt his heart slowly unclench and he let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. God, he was such an idiot.

“Well, thanks for this. I’m excited to try it.”

Lance rubbed the back of his head and said, “Yeah, I hope you like it.” Lance handed over two dollars, but Keith shook his head.

“If you think I’m letting you pay, you’re crazy.”

Lance’s face lit up as he said, “Wow really? Thanks so much!” Keith pushed down the fluttery feeling in his stomach

“No problem. Buy yourself something nice with all the quarters you’ve saved up,” he joked.

Lance coughed lightly and if Keith didn’t know better, he would say Lance was… blushing? “Oh, don’t worry. I will.” Lance said cheerfully as he turned on his heel and waved to Keith. “Sorry, I’ve got to go back early today, but see you later!”

Keith tried to hide the disappointment in his voice when he said, “Later.” As he watched Lance go, he opened the bag and the wonderful smell of grease and spices hit his nose. Shit, he was starving.

Biting into this sandwich was heavenly. The cheese was melted just right and the pork was so tender. Keith had already finished half when he noticed a small blue post-it note at the bottom of the bag. He fished it out and what it said made him jump out of his chair.

 

_Keith,_

_This is a “medianoche” or a midnight sandwich. I hope you like it. It’s called that because apparently it’s exactly what you want at the midnight hour (aka it’s good drunchies). I can’t really disagree. Anyways, if you do like it, maybe we could have it together? Like actually at midnight. You know, to test if that theory is actually true. Maybe tonight? After a date or something? Just throwing it out there._

_909-xxx-xxxx_

_\- Lance_

 

Keith whipped out his phone and sent a singular text.

 

_I’m out of lab by 8._

 

\-------------

 

Keith looked at his watch for the seventeenth time. He had only texted Lance five minutes ago saying he had left the lab and would be waiting in front of his dorm, but he couldn’t help wanting him to hurry up and just _be there_. Every time headlights started to approach him, he would turn eagerly towards the car, but when it didn’t stop he felt his heart sink.

Another car pulled up and this time it paused at the curb and the window rolled down. Suddenly, Keith took everything back. He definitely was _not_ ready for Lance to be here.

“Hey,” Lance said.

“Hi.” Keith opened the door quickly and settled down in the seat, keeping his eyes forward. From the corner of his eye he could see that Lance wasn’t in his uniform for once, but for some reason he was still wearing his hat. Still, it worked for him and Keith couldn’t deny that Lance looked good in his oversized jacket and jeans. Lance scrolled through his phone and picked a song before pulling out of the parking lot. They were silent for a little bit as the music washed over them.

“I’m guessing you liked the sandwich then,” Lance said finally.

Keith nodded. “Yeah, it was amazing. Really, I was actually on the verge of tears when I finished it.”

Grinning, Lance said, “I knew you would love it. Or, well, I was hoping you would. You know, so we could do… this.” Lance gestured vaguely with his free hand.

Keith didn’t want to find out what that gesture meant just yet, so he changed the subject. “So, where are we going?”

Lance cleared his throat. “I was thinking of going to the pier actually.”

Keith looked at Lance incredulously. “You asked me out on a date just so you could take us to the place where we see each other every day?”

Lance laughed briefly. “I promise we’ll have a good time. It’s a totally different experience when you’re not on the clock.”

Keith squirmed in his seat, but nodded. It wasn’t what he was expecting, but it was a miracle this was even happening in the first place. Keith found himself sneaking little glimpses of Lance to make sure this wasn’t a dream. He watched as Lance absentmindedly tapped the steering wheel in time with the music and occasionally glanced up at the rearview mirror. Keith sucked in a breath. Definitely real.

As they neared the pier, Lance rolled down the windows and stuck his arm out to feel the air. Keith turned to stick his head out the window and let the wind tangle his hair. Keith could hear the waves crashing and tasted the salt in the air. He felt himself relax.

As they pulled into the parking lot, Lance pulled off his hat and tossed it to the back of his car before running his fingers through his hair. Keith had to physically stop his mouth from falling open and hurriedly opened the door. The frigid air left goosebumps on his arm and suddenly he regretted not going home to get a better jacket. He had been too excited about the date to even think about going home to change and now here he was in nothing but his stupid cropped jacket, a thin t-shirt, and jeans.

Trying not to shiver, he walked next to Lance as they approached the steps up to the pier. They hadn’t spoken a word since Keith asked where they were going and it made him want to scream. It had never been this hard to talk to him before, but now Keith could barely look Lance in the eyes.

Thankfully, it was Lance who finally spoke, turning towards Keith with a stupid grin on his face. “So, I definitely do not have enough money for us to go on the rides, but I do have enough of these for the arcade.” Lance pulled out a Ziploc bag out of his pocket and shook it in front of Keith’s face.

Keith stared at the bag full of quarters and laughed. “Ok, there’s no way you actually just had all those quarters lying around.”

Lance looked a bit sheepish and said, “Ok yeah, I exchanged like seven bucks in quarters at the bank today, but I swear I kept track of how much I saved. So it’s accurate at least. I was just thinking, you know, that it’d be kind of symbolic and—”

Keith interrupted Lance by bumping into his shoulder. “No, it’s… that’s really cute. The arcade sounds great.” He blushed a bit at his own words and quickened his strides. Lance fell into step next to him and Keith could see him smiling softly at the bag of quarters in his hand. Keith wondered if a day would come when Lance’s smile wouldn’t make his legs feel like jelly.

 

\-------------

 

“You do realize I’m a physicist, right? The odds are stacked against you.” Keith slammed the puck across the table, only for Lance to quickly move to guard his goal.

“Shut up, nerd. I’m going to beat you eventually,” Lance grumbled as he ricocheted the puck back towards Keith.

Keith smirked. “Keep telling yourself that.” He applied just the right amount of force and slapped the puck into the goal.

Lance groaned and looked at the final score. 1 – 4. Again. “Are you letting me get one point just to make me feel better?”

Keith felt a smile tug at his lips. “Who knows?” So far they were two for two. Lance had absolutely crushed him at shooting baskets and that idiotic zombie apocalypse FPS, but Keith felt he’d managed to regain his honor at the car racing game and, now, with air hockey.

Lance sighed at their dwindling pack of quarters. “I don’t think we can play again. C’mon, let’s get something to eat.”

As they exited the arcade, Lance abruptly turned left and stopped in front of a small cart. Keith side-eyed Lance with all the hatred he could muster.

“Lance, what the fuck are we doing here.”

“I’m buying shaved ice? Like I always do?”

Keith brought a hand to his face. “I can see that, but first of all, it’s not 100 degrees anymore and second of all, didn’t you already have one of these? How are you not sick of them?"

Lance gestured to the blue raspberry flavor and turned to Keith. “I’ll admit the guy who sells them in the afternoon is better, but once you try it you’ll understand why I love it so much.”

Keith flushed at the compliment, but shook his head. “Lance, no, I hate shaved ice. I am never eating it again for as long as I live.”

After he paid the full $2.25, Lance took the cup and for once grabbed the spoon. Taking just a little off the top, he brought the spoon to Keith’s mouth. “Here.”

Keith wanted to refuse again, but the words wouldn’t come out. There’s was no way he could say no. Not when Lance was being this cute. Slowly, he opened his mouth and took the spoon into his mouth. He shivered as the ice hit his teeth.

“Well, what do you think?” Lance asked.

“It’s too cold to taste anything,” Keith mumbled as he covered his mouth.

Lance frowned a little. “Here, try this.” He demonstrated sucking the syrup off the ice like he always did and Keith’s eyes widened.

“You want me to…” Keith gestured to the shaved ice and then to his own mouth. Lance rolled his eyes.

“Yes, Keith. Trust me on this.” He shoved the cup towards Keith’s face.

Keith saw the glimmer in Lance’s eyes and, not wanting to disappoint him, mimicked the action he had seen every day for the past two months. He had expected to be hit with a sickly sugary taste, but he was surprised to find that it was pleasantly cool and slightly sour with just the right amount of sweetness.

Licking his lips as he leaned away from the shaved ice, he looked back up at Lance who was blushing furiously. Keith felt his face get a bit warm too, but chuckled to himself, gratified that he was finally getting payback for having to watch Lance do the same thing for so long.

“It actually wasn’t that bad,” Keith admitted as he ran his fingers through his hair.

This seemed to shake Lance out of his stupor. “Oh yeah?” Lance voice cracked, but he quickly coughed and started over. “I told you that you’d like it.” He smiled weakly and tore his gaze away from Keith as he started shoveling the ice into his mouth.

Keith’s muscles relaxed and he couldn’t stop the grin that was breaking out on his face. It was kind of gratifying to see Lance as nervous as he was for once. The feeling emboldened him and he reached out to grab Lance’s arm.

“Let’s check out the beach. I’ve never been down there at night.” He tugged on Lance’s sleeve and walked down the stairs towards the beach. He didn’t dare look Lance in the eye, just in case he lost his nerve.

They walked underneath the pier for a while in silence. He heard a _thunk_ as Lance threw the rest of the shaved ice in the trash, but didn’t expect a hand to slip into his. Keith nearly tripped over his own feet and he heard Lance giggle. He didn’t turn around, but gently squeezed Lance’s hand. He felt his heart flutter as he felt Lance squeeze back.

They strolled along the beach, hand-in-hand, Keith leading Lance further and further down the path until it disappeared. Keith reluctantly let go of Lance’s hand to take off his shoes and together they made their way to the crashing waves.

Keith was really shivering now as the cold sand made its way between his toes and the salty air whipped through his jacket and under his t-shirt. He sat down in front of the water, hoping that curling his body up would make him feel warmer. Lance flopped down next to him and started to shrug his jacket off.

Keith held up a hand. “No, stop. It’s fine. You’ll be cold if you take your jacket off now.”

“Keith, you’re shaking.”

“And if you give your jacket to me, you’ll be the one who’s cold. One of us is going to be freezing no matter what. I don’t mind if it’s me.” Still, Keith brought his legs closer and rubbed his face into them. The shaved ice really hadn’t helped. His nose and lips felt frozen stiff.

Keith felt Lance shift closer to him and before he realized what was happening, Lance took off one side of his jacket and draped it over Keith. Lance was looking straight ahead, but his voice shook a little when he said, “So it’s not a problem if we share, right?”

Keith buried his face deeper into his legs. “Yeah. This—this is fine.” Keith pulled the jacket a bit further over his shoulder and Lance scooted closer to him still.

They sat there in silence for a bit and Keith gratefully soaked in the warmth from the jacket and Lance’s body heat. Just as he was starting to work up the courage to lean in a little more against Lance, he felt an arm wrap around his waist as Lance dragged Keith to his chest. Keith’s heartbeat echoed in his ears as he realized that he was nearly horizontal to Lance’s lap.

“You’re still shivering,” Lance explained in a breathy whisper that was way too close to Keith’s ear.

“Oh.”

Keith wasn’t really sure what he should do next, but before he could properly run through all the scenarios, he felt Lance’s head fall onto his own and the tiniest movement of Lance’s lips against his scalp.

Whatever was going through Keith’s head screeched to a halt as he whipped his face around to look up at Lance. Keith saw a mischievous glint in Lance’s eyes when he murmured to Keith, “Your lips are blue.” Keith barely had time to process what Lance said before his lips were enveloped by a comforting warmth.

The kiss was awful at first. Their lips were still sticky from the shaved ice and Lance seemed to want to eat Keith’s lips rather than kiss them. There was too much teeth and not enough of Lance’s extremely soft lips. Keith pulled away and murmured, “No, like this.” He took the lead this time and slowly pressed his lips to Lance’s with just little flicks of tongue. Lance seemed to get the hint and slowed down his rhythm to match Keith’s. _Much better_ , Keith thought.

Suddenly, Lance yanked Keith upward and settled him comfortably on his lap, draping his jacket further over them, without breaking the kiss. A small giggle bubbled out of Keith and Lance hummed pleasantly in response. Keith inhaled sharply and shivered as Lance’s hand made its way under his shirt and traced lazy circles along his chest.

Keith wasn’t really sure how long they were kissing for when suddenly, he heard a clap of thunder. He sharply broke away from Lance and tried to ignore the latter’s disappointed whine.

“Did you hear that just now?”

“Hear what?” Lance asked.

The sky boomed again in response.

“Oh. That.”

Keith started to get up. “Lance, we should probably get the fuck out of here right—“

With one final thundering boom, rain started pouring out of the sky in heavy sheets. 

“Run!!” Keith yelled as he pulled Lance up by the hand. They took off sprinting across the beach underneath Lance’s jacket. Keith could feel the rain soaking through his pants and his teeth chattered. If he was cold before, he was definitely getting hypothermia now. He would’ve been more irritated if Lance wasn’t shrieking with laughter behind him.

“This is so great!”

“How is this great?!”

“Well, besides the fact that we’ve been needing rain since forever, I actually just kind of like the rain.” Lance voice took on a new, gentler quality as he said rain and Keith felt his heart turn to mush. Maybe this storm wasn’t all bad.

Gasping for air as they finally made it back underneath the pier, the two boys huddled together against the wall for warmth. Lance’s jacket was soaked through and had done little to protect them. Their t-shirts clung together as they wrapped their arms tighter around each other. Keith could feel the vibrations of Lance’s laughter reverberate throughout his whole body and, despite everything, he couldn’t help but laugh too.

"This has been the craziest date of my life."

Keith wiped some of the water off his face. "Yeah, me too."

"Your lips are still blue," Lance commented as he lightly touched Keith's lips and kissed them gently.

Keith's eyes fluttered closed and he murmured, "I don't think you kissing them is gonna make that go away."

Lance chuckled. "You never know."

"You're an idiot."

Lance pushed Keith’s hair away from his forehead and said, “You know, I knew I was done for the moment I thought your mullet actually worked for you.”

Keith snorted and lightly smacked Lance’s chest, but muttered, “For me, it was when you winked before going back to your shift on that first day.”

Lance grinned. “Really, since back then? I can’t believe that actually worked.”

“Oh shut up.”

Lance brought his hand to Keith’s face and whispered, “Gladly.”

The world ground to a halt as Keith melted into the taste of summer rain and the subtle tang of blue raspberry.

 

\-------------

 

Thankfully, Lance’s place wasn’t too far from the pier and after a warm shower and a fresh change of clothes, Keith had nestled into the couch, wrapped in a blanket (at Lance’s insistence).

In the kitchen, Lance was humming as he flipped the sandwich over in the pan and Keith subconsciously curled his toes as he watched. The mouthwatering aroma of spices and melted cheese and the sizzling of grease enveloped him in a different kind of warmth than the blanket did. He really couldn’t believe that he wasn’t dreaming.

Moments later Lance walked over to the couch and placed two plates on the coffee table. “It’s a little early thanks to the rain, but special delivery for the cutest vendor on the pier.” Lance waggled his eyebrows and Keith smiled fondly at the memory. Was that really only two months ago?

Keith snapped out of his nostalgia and shouted with laughter as Lance jumped on top of him. Lance crawled into the blanket, snuggling next to Keith and tangling their legs together. Once he was comfortably settled in, he reached for the plates on the table and handed Keith one, before leaning all his weight onto Keith’s shoulder. Keith nuzzled his face into Lance’s hair.

Forget the _medianoche_. What Keith really wanted, what he _craved_ , at the midnight hour was this feeling, the way he felt with Lance. He wanted it all the time. At not-quite-midnight. At any hour. Any night. Every night. Every day. Just like this.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo my good klancy pals. This is my first time writing a developing relationship from first meeting to first kiss and it was pretty fun, though a little rushed because I wanted it to be short. I think I’ll practice this more because it’s not as good as I want it. I want it to be more *clenches fist* heart-wrenching.
> 
> I know people HC Keith as a hot-water bottle because FIRE, but I think that he’s actually like a lizard and is very sensitive to temperature changes. Poor Keith in SoCal. The weather is so 0 to 100. That sudden rain is no joke. I have seen plenty of storms come out of fucking nowhere.
> 
> Another side note, I might make my Klance shipname “blue raspberry” just because it’s so adorable and sweet and perfect? I still like Team Icy Hot, but there’s too many great possibilities with red/blue gays.
> 
> ANYWAYS, your comments give me life and I’m always so happy to read them. My little one-shots don’t deserve this. I LUH YOU ALL.


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